The next frontier for harassment accusations?

Last week over lunch, a friend and I talked about the growing number of women who have accused men of inappropriate behavior and agreed that the accusations will continue to increase.

I observed that most of the incidents have come from the business/entertainment industry, the political world, and the world of sports. But he has worked in two large state universities and said the problem may be even more prevalent there with students, most of them away from home for the first time and are in an unbalanced power relationship with their instructors.

Two days later the Seattle Times ran a front-page story that illustrated his point, a story about a professor at Central Washington University, Matt Manweller, also a state legislator now, who has been accused by a former student of sexual improprieties: he repeatedly suggested they go out for drinks until she finally agreed, knowing she might need a letter of recommendation from him, but she brought a friend with her for safety. According to the accuser, the professor suggested they have a three-way sexual relationship. He denies it.

According to the same article, while taking an independent study course from Manweller, another woman says she went to his office to get help on her research paper, that he closed the door, pulled his chair close to her, and told her there was a “sexual energy between them that was undeniable.”

According to the student’s complaint, he said, “Let’s be honest, you don’t want to write the paper and I don’t want to read it, we can discuss it orally.” She says he put his hand on her leg and kissed her before she escaped.

My friend, the former university teacher, said this was common behavior in the academic world where teachers hold power over students who need things from them: a higher grade, a recommendation for a higher degree program, or a recommendation for a job. The teacher is in the position of power and, if he’s inclined, may ask for favors in return.

A play by David Mamet illustrates another route this problem can take. A female student goes to her professor’s office for help in understanding the material in the course. He tells her he likes her and offers to give her an “A” if she’ll return to his office several more times. He puts his head on her shoulder to comfort her but she violently shakes it off.

She files a formal complaint against him, which threatens his tenure, so now she has he power. She tries to leave his office but he blocks the way and grabs hold of her.

She later charges him with rape. He is denied tenure and is threatened with dismissal. She offers to withdraw her charges if he agrees to drop her list of books to be withdrawn from the university, including his own. Not only does he refuse but beats her, verbally abuses her, and holds a chair above her head as a weapon.

In this chilling story, the student and the professor each has power over the other and is willing to use it viciously.

The accusations against Manweller at Central were investigated. He was reprimanded and ordered to get sexual harassment training. Eventually he was granted full professorship and given back pay as well as payment for his legal fees.

More recently he has been accused by a female colleague in the Legislature, and this week Manweller was put on administrative leave from Central.

Feminist and writer Naomi Wolfwrites, "… (female students) should indeed worry about making an accusation because what they fear is likely to come true. Not one of the women I have heard from had an outcome that was not worse for her than silence. One, I recall, was drummed out of the school by peer pressure. Many faced bureaucratic stonewalling. Some women said they lost their academic status as golden girls overnight; grants dried up, letters of recommendation were no longer forthcoming. No one was met with a coherent process that was not weighted against them. Usually, the key decision-makers in the college or university — especially if it was a private university — joined forces to, in effect, collude with the faculty member accused; to protect not him necessarily but the reputation of the university, and to keep information from surfacing in a way that could protect other women. The goal seemed to be not to provide a balanced forum, but damage control."